As many of you know, the A-10, The Warthog, was designed during the Cold War, to take on Warsaw Pact armour close in and low, and demonstrated it's ability at this task stellarly in both Gulf Wars,
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/...
And has morphed in our almost to many to count, Small Wars, as "the" CAS aircraft. It's been re-upped to serve again, in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan,
And as the/Ukraine moves closer and closer to a full on Russian/NATO War, is being deployed again to Europe.
Once again, it appears that SAM' s, lack of stealth or MANPADs is not the A-10 Warthog's biggest threat. As the World Turns, starts below the scrambled eggs,
We start, back on Jan, 16th with this:
This week, as the A-10 created panic in the Middle East, Major General James Post, Vice Commander of Air Combat Command, sent fear through the ranks of the United States Air Force.
At the same time IraqiNews.com reported on a local source in Nineveh province who said that “the ‘Wild Boar’ aircraft which belongs to the U.S. Air Force has carried out four air strikes that killed and wounded dozens of ISIS elements, adding that the aircraft sparked panic in the ranks of ISIS, USAF officers were being told by Post, “if anyone accuses me of saying this, I will deny it . . . anyone who is passing information to Congress about A-10 capabilities is committing treason.”
http://www.arizonadailyindependent.com/...
This was followed up by the Air Force Brass, with a bunch of mealy mouthed non-apologies to Legislators and promises of an investigation.
This was followed up, by a leaked report to USA Today, by the Air Force Brass on February 6th, claiming:
WASHINGTON — The Air Force A-10 attack jet has killed more U.S. troops in friendly fire incidents and more Afghan civilians than any other aircraft flown by the U.S. military, according to data declassified and obtained by USA TODAY.
http://www.usatoday.com/...
Vocal pushback by the A-10 Fanbase was immediate, statistical, and often used the words "lies" and "smears",
Now, to further muzzle any honest debate about providing adequate close air support for our troops, Air Force headquarters cherry-picked and then declassified selected statistics for USA Today—all to tar the A-10 with having killed more American troops and Afghan civilians than any other plane.
Those cooked statistics excluded—and kept classified—data that is essential for a basic understanding of the issue.
Even when you look at the Air Force headquarters’ doctored statistics, it turns out the A-10 is significantly safer than most of the other planes. Only a total misreading would suggest that the A-10 is the plane most dangerous to friendly troops or civilians.
Finally and most importantly, to make sure no one could compare aircraft using the crucially important friendly casualty rate per 100 sorties, the Air Force withheld as classified the number of firing sorties each plane flew during the fratricide data period—2001 to 2014—notably the same data they declassified for their civilian casualty chart from 2010 to 2014.
https://medium.com/...
http://www.upi.com/...
Caught in a lie, the Air Force kept digging in deeper,
http://thehill.com/...
And deeper,
http://www.janes.com/...